Communism, Hypnotism, and The Beatles

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/02/communism-hypnotism-and-the.html

As a certified clinical hypnotherapist and teacher of hypnotherapy with over 25 years in the field, let me be the first to say WTF??

6 Likes

I prefer Alan Sherman’s version.

1 Like

Note the “certain kinds of jazz” caveat-- not all jazz apparently, I guess just jazz the author doesn’t personally like.

Which is actually breaking from earlier 20th century music criticism that said all jazz was cacophonous chaotic jungle music (of course at the time, “all jazz” basically meant “Dixieland”, which can be pretty chaotic sounding the first time you hear it, but no more so than Stravinsky.)

5 Likes

This brings me back to my youth in Houston TX, where the John Birch Society had a dial-a-rant line called Let Freedom Ring. When The White Album came out, they lamasted the song Back In the USSR.

5 Likes

ability to defend themselves from those who would bury them

Is that an echo of the infamous mistranslation (or a questionable interpretation, at least) of Khrushchev’s speech?

1 Like

“The Beatles’ ability to make teenagers take off their clothes and riot is laboratory tested and approved.” (p. 10)

Approved?

3 Likes

Maybe the scientists were into voyeurism.

2 Likes

Those were really strange times.
https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/boingboing/optimized/3X/c/3/c39f2b72b67e9873de7e000af6ce4aa12f56626e_1_318x500.jpg

See also:

11 Likes

Man, I guess Frank Sanatra was also a commie plot given how they reacted to him when he was the teen heartthrob.

OH FRANKIE! *Swoons*

5 Likes

No, he was probably part of the Papist takover of American society. THAT’S WHY WE NEED TO STOP KENNEDY!

—Nixon '60

5 Likes

OMG I totally forgot that was an actual thing.

1 Like

Well… not yet…

3 Likes

Ya know, I think I’ll take that over Trump.

4 Likes

Ah yes. “Remember the Pueblo…and Let Freedom Ring.”

2 Likes

Smooth jazz is okay! :wink: Or Swing by white people.

Adorno didn’t like jazz either…

2 Likes

Ha! The metalhead I work with thinks all jazz is “smooth jazz”-- Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Bix Beiderbecke, Archie Shepp, it’s all Kenny G to him.

But yeah, when I saw “certain kinds of jazz” I was imagining the author looking at his Dinah Shore albums, “well, these are OK.”

2 Likes

4 Likes

You can’t be a scientist without having voyeuristic tendencies. Doc’ gotta snoop!

1 Like

No one listens to jazz. Science teachers and the mentally ill, that’s all jazz is for.

2 Likes